Irrational Fears

Okay, I've started writing my second novel (the first one I started, I never finished because I just lost touch w/ the plot and characters and stuff). So far, I've written enough to fill up one legal pad. Yeah, you read that right, I've been writing the entire thing out longhand. There are no files whatsoever concerning this novel on my computer. Okay, bid deal, who cares, right?

Wrong! When I started my first novel I did everything on the computer, from character sketches, to plotting, to the actual writing. I think that when I write on the computer, I am too serious, so I'm less creative. Also, I have this compulsive urge to edit as I write when I'm on the computer because that's how I write essays and homework and stuff, but it's much better, creatively, for me not to edit when I'm writing the first draft.

Okay, here's my dilemma. I just finished my first legal pad of stuff, and it's getting to the point where all the plotting and scenes and character sketches are too extensive for me to know exactly where everything is. I don't write scenes in sequence, just whatever strikes me and then patch it together later, so this is a problem because I forget things that should be strings or ideas for later scenes that I've jotted in the margins or whatever. So, I'm about to start putting all this stuff into my computer so that theoretically it'll be more organized. I'm terrified because I think that I just about organized and computerized the life out of my first start.

Whew! I feel much better for having vented...if you have a suggestion/thought/rational idea about this or some other aspect of the creative process, feel free to email me at kmoss@email.com.

Paranoid as usual, -Katie